September 7, 2011
Long time, no see! My summer was pretty busy with my university research job, and I ended up not actually completing any prototypes that I thought were suitable for public release. However, I did have enough time to write a bunch of articles for Nightmare Mode, which I will list here in case you missed them: Oniken Preview, The Iconoclasts Preview, Tale of Tales Interview, Owlboy Preview, Achron Impressions Part I, and Maldita Castilla Preview. There's still plenty more planned articles for NMM, and I'll keep you updated with occasional article collection posts like this. I'm also thinking about having a page dedicated to PDF versions of my articles. That should appear soon. As for the prototypes, I wouldn't expect anything before this Winter. If I actually manage to get something out by that time, then it'll either be for a previously undisclosed game concept (meaning one I have yet to describe) or one of my old platformer projects. Don't hold your breath, but at least you can expect occasional articles on NMM and video walkthroughs on YouTube regardless of game project progress.
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Nightmare Mode
July 30, 2011
Just watched the 2011 movie known as "Source Code" today. Thought it had some interesting moral questions (kind of like "Unthinkable", but with less actual depictions of violence). I didn't realize it earlier when I had originally watched "Groundhog Day", but the movie's concept of using trial-and-error to solve puzzles until "succeeding" could make for a very interesting game without diverging from fairly traditional design regarding character death if it's pulled off well. I am inspired to ... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Concepts
July 25, 2011
As far as NMM stuff goes, I've put up a "Sky Island" review since last time. I'm also in the process of finishing a "Batman: Arkham Asylum" review and then later working on a "Oniken" preview and a "Treasures of the Deep" (PlayStation 1) retrospective / retro review. === The stealth game project has not progressed due to me not yet deciding what tone and setting to go for. As such, it'll probably be on hiatus for now, if not indefinitely. Various recent experiences make me feel like I should foc... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Concepts
July 11, 2011
Patricia at Nightmare Mode introduced me to this article on death fetishism in "Call of Duty: Black Ops". Good stuff, and I think it's definitely worth a read. A while ago, I think it was strange how so few articles covered obvious military fetishism and glorification of war in many video games. The aforementioned article isn't quite the same as the analysis I was imagining should be out by now, but it's still pretty good and covers some important points. As for other stuff, I'll post the coll... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Recommended
June 20, 2011
Hey all. I've started a volunteer position at Nightmare Mode, a rather nifty game analysis site, a while ago. My first article for them, on emergent gameplay and titled " Latent Intricacy" is up. Give it a read if you'd like. If I have something game-related that I want to talk about and it isn't about one of my projects, there's a good chance I'll try to shape it into a (hopefully) good article for NMM. There's also a chance you'll note my influence on some other articles on there, as all the ... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Nightmare Mode
June 8, 2011
Alright, alright, no points for guessing what I'm about to say. I like my ambitious "Evil Genius" inspired project, I really do, but the point is that it is quite ambitious. This, if you haven't guessed by now, is one of the reasons many of my previous game projects simply never reached development past a simple prototype (if that); I'd set an ambitious goal and feel less and less motivated to continue as I doubted my abilities to deliver something sufficiently good (and within a realistic ti... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Concepts
May 31, 2011
This post is a continuation of the previous post. To say that this game will merely be an attempt at a 2d version of "Evil Genius" is disingenuous. While there will be many similarities, there will also be noticeable differences. Let me specifically detail some of the planned features to better inform you about this project. The 2004 "Evil Genius" game was a fantastic concept with (unfortunately) flawed execution. Many of the concepts from "Evil Genius" that I consider strong will be emulated i... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Concepts
May 30, 2011
In a footnote of an earlier post, I expressed interest in eventually working on a 2d top-down game heavily inspired by the 2004 "Evil Genius" video game. I ultimately made the decision to skip over making a smaller stealth-focused game and am now pursuing the development of the more ambitious management/real-time strategy game. There's two main reasons for making another large conceptual leap. The first is that I feel that there is only so much you can do with a story inspired by the "Hitman" ... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Concepts
May 26, 2011
Well, this one comes as a surprise, even to me! Earlier, I posted about how some conceptual changes were necessary in order to expand the stealth gameplay and remove dissonance between the story and gameplay representations of characters. Little did I know, a much larger change would be necessary for the practicality of gameplay and level design... Since the narrative and character shift was so recent, I didn't have any specific gameplay scenarios for this new style in mind; I simply assumed I ... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Concepts
May 24, 2011
I thought I'd spend a little time today to tell a story about how lockpicking ended up the way it is in the game. A number of games include lockpicking and they often implement it in different ways. "Hitman: Blood Money" (from which this particular game derives a lot of inspiration) has lockpicking that simply required time rather than skill. A number of other games incorporated at least some skill in their lockpicking sequences. The lockpicking in "Thief 3: Deadly Shadows" involved using the... Continue reading...
Posted by Ramunas Jakimavicius. Posted In : Concepts
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About the Author
Loves analysis, humor and video games, so naturally endeavors to combine the three when possible. Has a penchant for indie games as well as for aesthetics and art in whatever form it may appear. Works on freeware games and video game walkthroughs as a hobby. Favorite games include: Okami, Psychonauts and Spelunky.
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